From Active Duty to ‘Tiny Living’

There are television shows dedicated to showing how people
are choosing to downsize to tiny homes, RVs or vans transformed into livable
spaces. But for many of us, this is just a fascination — wondering how people
can sell all of their belongings and cram a family of five (or more) into such
a small space. One military family has decided to make this trend a reality,
moving their family of six human and two furry family members into a remodeled
bus.

Military families often get creative when they are preparing
to move, sometimes opting to sell off belongings and travel to a new duty
station in a RV-style vehicle — and after the most recent brutal PCS season,
that doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Though, many of us still live the
traditional lifestyle in a home with several bedrooms, a large kitchen to fit
every appliance and gadget possible, and a dedicated career room with all your
spouse’s memorabilia (we all have one).

However, for the Bissonnette family, this wasn’t always their dream. Mom, Shiang-ling, had thoughts of minimalism here and there but it mostly ebbed and flowed with the mountains of laundry that piled from her four kids and MARSOC husband.

“I just hated the cleaning,” she says, “There was always
something to clean and stuff to move. It was exhausting.”

Johnny and Shiang-ling Bissonnette.

But in January of 2018, the Bissonnette family got news they
weren’t expecting: coming straight off of a deployment, her husband was to be
involuntarily separated from the Marine Corps.

“We weren’t expecting it,” husband Johnny states. “I always
thought I’d do my 20 and get out. I was 13 years in, and now I was being told I
had to go.”

At this point the family had a choice to make because their family was going down to one income. Shiang-ling’s marketing business, The Hive & Co, was successful but it wasn’t enough to cover $1,900/month mortgage plus all the other living expenses. Johnny was working odd jobs to help make ends-meet, and it just wasn’t enough. That’s when she re- introduced the idea of “going tiny” to her family.

After some late night discussions, research, and “the black
hole of YouTube videos,” as Shiang-ling says, they decided to make the leap.
They had to act fast, too. Johnny was to be EASed by April, a full three months
sooner than a normal timeline. They bought a Thomas-built school-style bus from
a reputable dealer.

The Bissonnette family in front of their recently converted bus.

Since May, they have worked to convert their bus into a home, adding beds, appliances, flooring, custom ceilings, and more. Having only been living in the bus, affectionately named “Buzz,” for a few months now, they still have some finishing touches to complete — including installing solar panels.

The decision to sell all their belongings and move onto a
bus wasn’t as hard as one might think.

“We looked around,” says Shiang-ling, “and life just wasn’t
what we wanted it to be. Johnny was always exhausted so when he was home he
physically just couldn’t be as engaged with the kids. The kids had bad
attitudes towards each other and constantly secluded themselves from the
family. It just wasn’t the life we wanted.”

Education played a big factor, too. At the time, their four
children were attending the local schools and the Bissonnettes had pretty much
left their education up to their teachers.

“I found myself disengaged from my kids,” says Shiang-ling.
“I work from home so I couldn’t go in and volunteer as much I’d like, and we
found that they were just being pushed along in their education with no real
value.”

Now, the Bissonettes homeschool full-time, with their kids
taking the lead on their education.

And their oldest, Alexis, 10, has her own business making
clay magnets. “She is with me learning business practices, finances, and
marketing,” says Shiang-ling.

She will even help make the sales materials for the family’s
blog and vlog, The Bhive Family, down the road. Their oldest son, Matthew, 8,
came to them and said he wanted to learn about combustible engines. “I don’t
know where he heard it, but that’s what we’re talking about now during school
times,” she adds.

Financially, the decision made sense, too. With their income
significantly reduced, they needed to make a change. Although Johnny is in the
Marine Reserves now, which offers some cushion, their mortgage and regular
expenses were just too much. “It’s stressful paying the mortgage on one
income,” relays Shiang-ling. “We’ve spent $5,000 so far [to convert the bus]. We
think we have another $1,000 to go.”

Last fall, the Bissonettes sold their North Carolina home,
which had some damage from Hurricane Florence (but “the bus did not,” Johnny
triumphantly declares). Shiang-ling has continued to work with her remote
marketing and branding business. Johnny is finishing his bachelor’s degree, and
hopes to move into remote teaching while serving in the reserves. The family
wants to travel the country, hitting each state at least once, and living “off
the grid” for a while.

The family recently left Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, where
Johnny completed his reserve training, and drove their home on wheels to the
Florida Everglades for one of many family adventures to come.

“Everyone is so much happier now,” say the couple. “The
stress and fast-paced life is gone.”

Since their lifestyle change, the family feels more connected and less stressed.

The entire family dynamic is much more content with Dad
getting to spend actual, quality time with the kids. “They have real, deep
discussions now whereas before they were just ships passing,” says Shiang-ling.

They always wanted their family to be deeply connected and
to have more than the work-school-work-school life, but they weren’t able to
with Johnny’s high-tempo pace at MARSOC. Financially, the Bissonettes are in a
better place, too as living on the bus is significantly cheaper than living in
a traditional house. With absolutely no regrets, the couple agrees that
although being involuntarily separated was not in their life plans, it’s the
best thing that could have happened to their family.

“Now we have a saying [that we use] all the time: ‘Instead
of getting busy surviving, [get] busy living.’”

Follow the Bissonnette family as they document this new chapter online.

Lauren Lomsdale is a USMC spouse and the mom of three spunky girls. In addition to her work as the owner of Lauren Lomsdale Creative Studios as a virtual assistant, marketing manager, and social media manager she is also the Managing Editor of Daily Mom Military and one half of the YouTube channel #TheDependas. In her minimal spare time, she also loves to run long distances, work out, and sing along to the Greatest Showman in her kitchen holding holding a glass of wine.